Anna Sui on the Five Films That Inspired Her Aesthetic

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Here at Bazaar, we are just as devoted to the well-dressed mind as we are to the well-dressed woman. In fact, we find that one often engenders the other. In our new series The Well-Dressed Mind, we examine the intersection point between style and intellect by asking industry professionals and tastemakers for their cultural recommendations.

Anna Sui’s namesake brand is rooted in a reverence for the past. By blending niche references across time periods, she makes her clothes feel distinctly now. Part of a defining generation of downtown New York designers in the ’80s and ’90s, Sui invokes her love of vintage fashion, design, photography, and art as the basis of her work. The feel of the resulting collections is at once girlish, grunge, ’70s, punk, and bohemian.

Last week, the Friends of the Costume Institute, an organization attached to the Met museum, asked Sui to dive into her vast collection of archival references and select a film that most influenced her as a designer for a screening. (Sui also funds a yearlong internship for the department.) She picked the 1970 movie Performance, directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, which depicts a London gangster’s identity crisis while in hiding at the home of a rock star (played by Mick Jagger) and his two girlfriends, one of whom is played by style icon Anita Pallenberg. You can see why this would appeal to her; the trippy, ’70s clash of glam and bohemia is very Sui.

Hungry for more, we asked Sui to outline the onus behind that selection and four additional films that had the greatest influence on her aesthetic.

Performance (1970)

Directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg

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“Anita Pallenberg has always been my style icon, especially since I saw her amazing wardrobe throughout Performance: the fringe kaftan, antique lace top, pink velvet pants, fox fur coat, silver platform sandals, texture zigzag tights, and the slinky black satin dresses.”

Love and Anarchy (1973)

Directed by Lina Wertmüller

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“This film is set in a brothel in 1930s fascist Italy. The lingerie, piano shawls with smoky eye makeup and wavy bobs looked straight out of a Sarah Moon photograph.”

Wonderwall (1968)

Directed by Joe Massot

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“Jane Birkin is a fashion model with a Peeping Tom for a neighbor. He’s obsessed with what he perceives as her glamorous fashion lifestyle, and he comes to the rescue when she decides to do herself in. It’s got sets by the artistic collective the Fool, which designed the Beatles’ Apple Boutique, and a George Harrison soundtrack to transport you to the swinging ’60s in London.”

Tommy (1975)

Directed by Ken Russell

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“The Who’s rock opera has a star-studded cast: Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Jack Nicholson, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, Tina Turner, and Roger Daltrey. There are amazing costumes by his wife, Shirley Russell, including Biba clothes on their daughter Victoria. This musical odyssey is filled with the amazing Who soundtrack.”

Cabaret (1972)

Directed by Bob Fosse

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“Liza Minnelli's talent and effervescent personality brought to life the dynamo Sally Bowles. With an incredible cast—divinely decadent Joel Grey, gorgeous Michael York, and Marisa Berenson—we're transported to the Kit Kat Club and 1930s Weimar Republic Germany. The songs and music are just as sensational as Bob Fosse’s choreography and direction. And Liza’s costumes, with a helping hand from Halston, are legendary. She even wears an embellished Ossie Clark for one musical number. Her green nail polish, spiky false eyelashes, and signature haircut have stayed with me forever. One of the greatest musical dramas of all time.”

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